From the Daily Star
'Change mindset to ensure rights of MSM people in society'
Staff Correspondent
Speakers at a meeting yesterday underscored the need for changing the mindset towards MSM (male having sex with male) people to ensure their rights in the society.
They said although the constitution ensures basic human rights of all, this group is the most neglected and marginalised one in the society.
The speakers also called upon all stakeholders including different policy makers, NGOs and media workers to work together for mainstreaming them in the society.
The meeting titled 'Upholding human rights of MSM: Sharing experience and lesson learned for future direction' was organised by Bandhu Social Welfare Society (BSWS) in collaboration with Manusher Jonno Foundation at Brac Centre Inn in the city.
Presenting a slideshow titled '377, MSM and Human Rights in Bangladesh', Barrister Sara Hossain said the law enforcement agencies generally prefer to avoid family feuds, but in the case of MSM people they interfere and harass them using the section 377 of the Penal Code.
She said the section has become an instrument of harassment for people, especially for the MSM people.
Dr Shariful Islam Khan Bobby of ICDDR,B said the MSM people suffer from psycho-sexual and psycho-biological problems including low self- esteem and identity crisis.
He said there are some obstacles to work with MSM people due to poor coordination among the policymakers, donors and NGOs.
"We have to sensitise media and build awareness among the lawyers regarding the MSM issue," he said, adding that media can play an immense role in this regard.
Rina Roy, director (rights) of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said MSM is a marginalised group of people who are denied of their human rights.
"We want a society where all people can live with equal rights and opportunities, and we have to build up that society," she added.
Saleh Ahmed, executive director of BSWS, spoke about the projects that they are carrying out in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Mymensingh for protecting the human rights of MSM people.
Dr Robert Kelly, country director of FHI, Anisul Islam Hero, chairperson of BSWS, and Tamanna Rahman, executive member of BSWS, also spoke on the occasion.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Gay Africans and Arabs Come Out Online
From Reuters Canada
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online.
But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.blogspot.com.
"Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.
Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to execution.
"The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response."
In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation.
"If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,"' Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers. "I'm Sudanese and Proud Gay Also."
His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start of the blog "Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man" that stated: "The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the psyche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented."
NEWS AND ABUSE
That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails.
"Faggot queen," wrote a commentator called 'blake' on Kenya's 'Rants and raves'. "I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation," referring to the country's post-election violence.
Some are more measured: "The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural," a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog.
Some of the bloggers use the diary-style format to share the ups and downs of gay life -- the dilemma of whether to come out to friends and relatives, the risks of meeting in known gay bars, or, according to blogger "...and then God created Men!" the joys of the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.
Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing on reports of persecution in their region and beyond.
The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq.
Kenya's "Rants and Raves" reported that gay people were targets in the country's election violence, while blogger Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots. Afriboy organized an auction of his erotic art to raise funds "to help my community in Kenya."
There was also widespread debate on the comments made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about homosexuals in his country.
The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene.
"It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.com which tracks gay news and Web sites throughout the world.
"There are a number of people from the community who are blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still quite sporadic," said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on her own Web site Black Looks.
WAYS TO MEET
The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay blogging activity are starting to emerge.
There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east. There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay Nigerians.
And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come wholly into the open.
"I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ... There is nothing wrong that I am doing," said Matuba Mahlatjie of the blog My Haven.
Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile society.
"That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for others until I found others," said Gug, the writer behind the blog GayUganda.
"Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our villages and realize that the parish priest's homophobia is not universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!"
(Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sara Ledwith)
© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
February 18, 2008
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online.
But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.blogspot.com.
"Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.
Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to execution.
"The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response."
In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation.
"If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,"' Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers. "I'm Sudanese and Proud Gay Also."
His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start of the blog "Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man" that stated: "The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the psyche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented."
NEWS AND ABUSE
That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails.
"Faggot queen," wrote a commentator called 'blake' on Kenya's 'Rants and raves'. "I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation," referring to the country's post-election violence.
Some are more measured: "The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural," a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog.
Some of the bloggers use the diary-style format to share the ups and downs of gay life -- the dilemma of whether to come out to friends and relatives, the risks of meeting in known gay bars, or, according to blogger "...and then God created Men!" the joys of the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.
Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing on reports of persecution in their region and beyond.
The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq.
Kenya's "Rants and Raves" reported that gay people were targets in the country's election violence, while blogger Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots. Afriboy organized an auction of his erotic art to raise funds "to help my community in Kenya."
There was also widespread debate on the comments made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about homosexuals in his country.
The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene.
"It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.com which tracks gay news and Web sites throughout the world.
"There are a number of people from the community who are blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still quite sporadic," said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on her own Web site Black Looks.
WAYS TO MEET
The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay blogging activity are starting to emerge.
There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east. There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay Nigerians.
And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come wholly into the open.
"I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ... There is nothing wrong that I am doing," said Matuba Mahlatjie of the blog My Haven.
Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile society.
"That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for others until I found others," said Gug, the writer behind the blog GayUganda.
"Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our villages and realize that the parish priest's homophobia is not universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!"
(Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sara Ledwith)
© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
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Friday, February 15, 2008
Senegal: Reading, Writing, and HIV: When Reproductive Health Becomes Part of the Curriculum
From UNFPA
These students are typical of their peers nationwide as part of a national sexual education curriculum, developed by the Senegalese government and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. The courses in sexual and reproductive health, or Education in Family Life as they are officially called, have become as integrated into the typical school year as mathematics. Every Senegalese public school student must take them, beginning in primary school and continuing through to the final levels of high school.
The Government's early, consistent and multisectoral actions to prevent the spread of HIV has garnered international attention and helped maintain Senegal's very low infection rate: less than 1 per cent of the population is HIV-positive. Education ha been an important part of the country's response.
Besides providing students with a relaxed setting to talk about these often-sensitive issues, the clubs have a visible impact on the local community, creating what is effectively a young civil society. In the last few months, students from Safietou and Cheikh's clubs have organized an HIV/AIDS-awareness march and a day of free HIV testing and counselling.
Reading, Writing, and HIV: When Reproductive Health Becomes Part of the Curriculum
 |  Keeping young people informed is an integral part of Senegal's successful response to the AIDS epidemic. Photo: Dima Gavrysh/UNFPA |
05 February 2008
KOLDA, Senegal — "Monsieur! Monsieur!" Fingers snapping, faces eager, the students in this small classroom in rural Senegal battle between their desire to follow the strict rules of the classroom and the sheer joy of knowing the answer. The conflict lasts about a second, with propriety losing badly. Many of the students are half-leaping out of their seats by the time the teacher points towards one of his pupils for a description of the image he has hung on the blackboard.
"Well? What's happening in this picture?"
"The girl is saying to him, 'I do not have sexual relations without a condom.'"
Just another school day in Senegal.
|
We focus on abstinence, but with the understanding that people are also human, that some make mistakes, and that we need to look after the health of those that do.
These students are typical of their peers nationwide as part of a national sexual education curriculum, developed by the Senegalese government and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. The courses in sexual and reproductive health, or Education in Family Life as they are officially called, have become as integrated into the typical school year as mathematics. Every Senegalese public school student must take them, beginning in primary school and continuing through to the final levels of high school.
Breaking a social taboo
Ninety-five per cent of this West African nation's population is Muslim, and sex remains a taboo subject in many homes. This can make talking about issues like sexually transmitted infections a difficult proposition. The national curriculum breaks the social taboo by making such conversations an obligatory part of going to school.
"This is a Muslim country, and Islam forbids sex before marriage," explains Dr. Cheikh Ba, the head of UNFPA's office in Kolda. "So we focus on abstinence, but with the understanding that people are also human, that some make mistakes, and that we need to look after the health of those that do."
|
The Government's early, consistent and multisectoral actions to prevent the spread of HIV has garnered international attention and helped maintain Senegal's very low infection rate: less than 1 per cent of the population is HIV-positive. Education ha been an important part of the country's response.
Afterschool raps and movies about serious issues
Extracurricular Education in Family Life clubs are run by the Group for the Teaching and Study of Population Issues, a UNFPA-supported Senegalese NGO. The clubs are student-run and voluntary. Members meet after school or during free periods to discuss issues ranging from female genital mutilation/cutting to HIV to early pregnancy.
Persuading teenagers to give up free time might seem like a tricky proposal, but the clubs have their own ways of drawing interest. Safietou Baldé, 17, was first attracted by the informational movies offered, which have proven popular with students. Safietou was eventually elected president of her club and smiles with pride when talking about the first event of her tenure.
"We organized a film screening on early pregnancy, and the room was full!"
Cheikh Tidiane is 15 years old and also a club president. He and his friends are serious hip-hop fans and mobilize their collective talents to cobble together raps about HIV and AIDS with the aim of sparking discussion. If faced with a recalcitrant student -- someone who ought to come to the club but doesn't want to --Tidiane tells him, "This will teach you how to lead your family."
|
Besides providing students with a relaxed setting to talk about these often-sensitive issues, the clubs have a visible impact on the local community, creating what is effectively a young civil society. In the last few months, students from Safietou and Cheikh's clubs have organized an HIV/AIDS-awareness march and a day of free HIV testing and counselling.
Taking a stand on early marriage
Students in Sedhiou, a town near Kolda, learned that one of their classmates was being pressured into an early marriage. They held a protest march, after which the parents relented. The girl now remains unmarried and free to pursue her studies.
Nevertheless, programmes such as these have not changed Senegalese culture completely. With sex before marriage contrary to religious custom, condoms have not yet lost their stigma. One club member described picking some up at a local health centre, then coming home and hiding them so no one would find out.
Yet he tells this story with a laugh, for he is at school now, and he has no reason to hide anything here. Across the country, Senegal's next generation is being educated in the same spirit of openness, paving the way for what will hopefully be a healthier future for all.
— Arthur Plews
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Uganda: New Study Shows Low Condom Use Among HIV Discordant Couples
UGANDA: New study shows low condom use among HIV discordant couples
NAIROBI, 14 February 2008 (PlusNews) - Condom resistance remains a real problem among HIV discordant couples in Uganda, new research has found.
The study, whose results were presented at the 15th conference on retroviruses and opportunistic infections in Boston, Massachusetts, found that of 36,000 couples tested, 96 percent of those in sexually active discordant relationships (where only one partner is HIV positive) reported not using condoms during their last sexual encounter.
"The people we studied were in stable relationships - usually man and wife - and thus they did not feel the need to use condoms," said Dr Elioda Tumwesigye, the lead researcher. "Even after testing, many continued to practice unprotected sex, saying that discordance was fate or that one partner must be immune."
The research was as a result of a United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) initiative to provide home-based voluntary counselling and testing to 250,000 people in in the western district of Bushenyi between 2004 and 2006.
Tumwesigye added that knowledge of HIV prevention was high in the community, but people felt condoms did not belong in the marital bed.
The men in the Bushenyi sample were more likely to be infected than the women, something Tumwesigye said was likely to be as a result of the age difference between men and women in the couples; on average, women were 30 years old while their spouses had a median age of 40.
"It's possible that these older men, with more sexual experience and higher exposure to HIV, married young girls with relatively little sexual experience," he said. "It is important to send a strong message to these couples that condoms will protect them and their relationships."
He noted that it was particularly urgent because in the study, discordant couples represented over 60 percent of the couples in which one or both partners was HIV-positive.
According to James Kigozi, spokesman for the Uganda AIDS Commission, resistance to and inconsistent use of condoms is a pattern replicated across the country.
"It is a real challenge trying to get married couples to use condoms because of the way they are perceived, as a tool for single people," he said.
"We routinely encourage couples to come for testing together but usually only the women come as part of their ante-natal care; if they test negative their husbands will feel like they too must then be negative and thus won't come," he added. "Another challenge is that women are often not in apposition to negotiate safer sex, so they continue to be put at risk in discordant relationships."
Kigozi said the government was using radio programmes, billboards and other media to encourage couples to jointly test. CDC's home-based care initiative in Bushenyi is also using radio and home visits to pass on the importance of VCT and condom use in discordant relationships.
The HIV/AIDS sero-behavioural survey of 2004-5 found that about five percent of about 4,000 cohabiting couples in Uganda were discordant. An estimated three percent of the couples were both HIV-positive.
 Photo: IRIN  |
| Condoms are perceived as unnecessary within the marital context |
The study, whose results were presented at the 15th conference on retroviruses and opportunistic infections in Boston, Massachusetts, found that of 36,000 couples tested, 96 percent of those in sexually active discordant relationships (where only one partner is HIV positive) reported not using condoms during their last sexual encounter.
"The people we studied were in stable relationships - usually man and wife - and thus they did not feel the need to use condoms," said Dr Elioda Tumwesigye, the lead researcher. "Even after testing, many continued to practice unprotected sex, saying that discordance was fate or that one partner must be immune."
The research was as a result of a United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) initiative to provide home-based voluntary counselling and testing to 250,000 people in in the western district of Bushenyi between 2004 and 2006.
Tumwesigye added that knowledge of HIV prevention was high in the community, but people felt condoms did not belong in the marital bed.
The men in the Bushenyi sample were more likely to be infected than the women, something Tumwesigye said was likely to be as a result of the age difference between men and women in the couples; on average, women were 30 years old while their spouses had a median age of 40.
"It's possible that these older men, with more sexual experience and higher exposure to HIV, married young girls with relatively little sexual experience," he said. "It is important to send a strong message to these couples that condoms will protect them and their relationships."
He noted that it was particularly urgent because in the study, discordant couples represented over 60 percent of the couples in which one or both partners was HIV-positive.
According to James Kigozi, spokesman for the Uganda AIDS Commission, resistance to and inconsistent use of condoms is a pattern replicated across the country.
"It is a real challenge trying to get married couples to use condoms because of the way they are perceived, as a tool for single people," he said.
"We routinely encourage couples to come for testing together but usually only the women come as part of their ante-natal care; if they test negative their husbands will feel like they too must then be negative and thus won't come," he added. "Another challenge is that women are often not in apposition to negotiate safer sex, so they continue to be put at risk in discordant relationships."
Kigozi said the government was using radio programmes, billboards and other media to encourage couples to jointly test. CDC's home-based care initiative in Bushenyi is also using radio and home visits to pass on the importance of VCT and condom use in discordant relationships.
The HIV/AIDS sero-behavioural survey of 2004-5 found that about five percent of about 4,000 cohabiting couples in Uganda were discordant. An estimated three percent of the couples were both HIV-positive.
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Living with HIV an Uphill Battle in Bangladesh
BANGLADESH: Living with HIV an uphill battle
DHAKA, 6 February 2008 (PlusNews) - Mohana Rosario is like many people living with HIV in the world today. The 30-year-old mother of four from Manikganj District, 75km from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, faces an uphill battle caring for herself and her family.
But her story is also one of intense tragedy. In September 2005 and pregnant with her fourth child, her husband, a local car mechanic, went for a swim in the sea and never returned.
"It was as if I drowned in the sea and not my husband," Mohana said in the waiting lounge of Ashar Alo (Light of Hope) Society - one of a handful of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh working to provide counselling, psychosocial and medical support to those living with HIV.
"First, there were itches on the skin. Then in a month or so, the itches turned into boils. For more than three months, I suffered from intermittent fever, coughing and a burning sensation on my palms and feet," she recalled.
Then in February 2006 she gave birth to a baby - a child only later she would learn was also HIV positive - while she continued to suffer. "I lost my appetite and threw up anything I ate. I suffered from persistent diarrhoea," she said of the time.
By June 2006 her weight had dropped from 50 kg to just 30 kg in just four months. "Simply I was dying," she said.
Facing the truth
It was only in September 2006, when her sister-in-law, a medical nurse, took her to Ashar Alo that she was finally diagnosed with HIV.
"I regularly visited Ashar Alo for three months. I was given free medicine and advice which I still get. I began to improve fast. By the end of 2006 I had regained my lost health. More importantly, I regained my faith in life. From 30 kg in June 2006, I am now 50 kg again," Mohana said.
Equally important, Mohana was also saved from the stigma that often accompanies the virus in this largely conservative Muslim society of over 150 million inhabitants.
"I am lucky that I did not have to face discrimination or suffer social stigma," she said, conceding that many are not so fortunate.
"I know of women who were beaten by members of their families for being HIV-positive. I know people who were ostracised by their communities. Their beds and belongings were burnt. Their children were denied entry into schools," she said.
To this day, Mohana remains oblivious as to how her husband might have contracted the disease. Faithful to his memory, she prefers to believe that he contracted the virus through a blood transfusion after a traffic car accident he supposedly had in India in 2000.
Dubai connection
Such stories in Bangladesh, where open discussion of HIV remains largely taboo, are not unusual, but continue to prevent many from securing the awareness they actually need.
For instance, Abdul Barik Howladar from Khulna District now cares for his elder sister Rabia Khatun, 50, who has also been tested HIV-positive. He takes his sister to Ashar Alo twice a week, where she is already showing signs of improvement.
"None of our relatives know that we come here," the 42-year old said. "We tell them that my sister is being treated for pneumonia at a private clinic in Dhaka. My sister and her husband are highly respected," he said, a fact belying the real challenge at hand, but duly noted by those on the ground.
"I dream of a society where HIV-positive people will get the right treatment both medically and socially," said Habiba Akter, the founder of Ashar Alo Society.
Mukto Akash (Free Sky) Bangladesh is another HIV prevention, care and treatment centre run exclusively by people living with HIV. From August 2003 to date, Mukto Akash has provided support to 485 HIV-positive people.
"Many of our members have died. Some left the country. Some shifted to other NGOs. At present we have 294 members who receive regular counselling, training and treatment from us," said Mukti, executive director of the NGO, currently the only centre of its kind working directly with commercial sex workers, she said.
More needs to be done
Although the prevalence rate for the virus remains low in Bangladesh - below 1 percent - officials are aware that they cannot afford to be complacent.
"We have only 1,207 proven cases of HIV-positive people, with an estimated 7,500 cases in the country. But that does not give us the option to sit idle," Mohammad Hanifuddin, deputy director of the government's national HIV/AIDS programme, said.
In at least two places in Dhaka, a concentrated epidemic of the virus has been identified among injecting drug users (IDU), with a 10 percent prevalence rate among IDUs in one part of the city.
"Recent experience shows that concentrated epidemics may trigger large-scale outbreaks of HIV/AIDS in a country," Hanifuddin explained, citing commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, IDUs, and other vulnerable groups, as potential bridges to mainstream heterosexual society.
 Photo: Zofeen Ebrahim/IRIN |
| The social stigma of HIV prevents many from seeking the help they really need" |
But her story is also one of intense tragedy. In September 2005 and pregnant with her fourth child, her husband, a local car mechanic, went for a swim in the sea and never returned.
"It was as if I drowned in the sea and not my husband," Mohana said in the waiting lounge of Ashar Alo (Light of Hope) Society - one of a handful of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh working to provide counselling, psychosocial and medical support to those living with HIV.
"First, there were itches on the skin. Then in a month or so, the itches turned into boils. For more than three months, I suffered from intermittent fever, coughing and a burning sensation on my palms and feet," she recalled.
Then in February 2006 she gave birth to a baby - a child only later she would learn was also HIV positive - while she continued to suffer. "I lost my appetite and threw up anything I ate. I suffered from persistent diarrhoea," she said of the time.
By June 2006 her weight had dropped from 50 kg to just 30 kg in just four months. "Simply I was dying," she said.
Facing the truth
It was only in September 2006, when her sister-in-law, a medical nurse, took her to Ashar Alo that she was finally diagnosed with HIV.
"I regularly visited Ashar Alo for three months. I was given free medicine and advice which I still get. I began to improve fast. By the end of 2006 I had regained my lost health. More importantly, I regained my faith in life. From 30 kg in June 2006, I am now 50 kg again," Mohana said.
Equally important, Mohana was also saved from the stigma that often accompanies the virus in this largely conservative Muslim society of over 150 million inhabitants.
"I am lucky that I did not have to face discrimination or suffer social stigma," she said, conceding that many are not so fortunate.
"I know of women who were beaten by members of their families for being HIV-positive. I know people who were ostracised by their communities. Their beds and belongings were burnt. Their children were denied entry into schools," she said.
To this day, Mohana remains oblivious as to how her husband might have contracted the disease. Faithful to his memory, she prefers to believe that he contracted the virus through a blood transfusion after a traffic car accident he supposedly had in India in 2000.
Dubai connection
Such stories in Bangladesh, where open discussion of HIV remains largely taboo, are not unusual, but continue to prevent many from securing the awareness they actually need.
For instance, Abdul Barik Howladar from Khulna District now cares for his elder sister Rabia Khatun, 50, who has also been tested HIV-positive. He takes his sister to Ashar Alo twice a week, where she is already showing signs of improvement.
"None of our relatives know that we come here," the 42-year old said. "We tell them that my sister is being treated for pneumonia at a private clinic in Dhaka. My sister and her husband are highly respected," he said, a fact belying the real challenge at hand, but duly noted by those on the ground.
"I dream of a society where HIV-positive people will get the right treatment both medically and socially," said Habiba Akter, the founder of Ashar Alo Society.
Mukto Akash (Free Sky) Bangladesh is another HIV prevention, care and treatment centre run exclusively by people living with HIV. From August 2003 to date, Mukto Akash has provided support to 485 HIV-positive people.
"Many of our members have died. Some left the country. Some shifted to other NGOs. At present we have 294 members who receive regular counselling, training and treatment from us," said Mukti, executive director of the NGO, currently the only centre of its kind working directly with commercial sex workers, she said.
More needs to be done
Although the prevalence rate for the virus remains low in Bangladesh - below 1 percent - officials are aware that they cannot afford to be complacent.
"We have only 1,207 proven cases of HIV-positive people, with an estimated 7,500 cases in the country. But that does not give us the option to sit idle," Mohammad Hanifuddin, deputy director of the government's national HIV/AIDS programme, said.
In at least two places in Dhaka, a concentrated epidemic of the virus has been identified among injecting drug users (IDU), with a 10 percent prevalence rate among IDUs in one part of the city.
"Recent experience shows that concentrated epidemics may trigger large-scale outbreaks of HIV/AIDS in a country," Hanifuddin explained, citing commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, IDUs, and other vulnerable groups, as potential bridges to mainstream heterosexual society.
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Op-Ed: State Law or Law of the Jungle? Women Tortured in Iraq & HIV+ Men Tortured in Egypt
From the Middle East Times
OP-ED: Natasha Bukhari
State Law or Law of the Jungle?
Published: February 14, 2008
Disturbing and tragic events in the Middle East are a daily occurrence, sadly enough. So much so, that we have grown accustomed to news of suicide bomb attacks killing tens of innocent bystanders in Iraq, or of many Palestinian civilians falling victim "by accident" to one of Israel's hunts for Hamas militants in Gaza.
Watching your own suffer due to injustice brought about by political struggle and occupation must be one of the worst feelings known to mankind, as it does not only remind one of one's own crippling helplessness, but it also unveils that all-so-common ugliness we humans can be capable of manifesting.
Two news items that surfaced last week provoked such feelings in me. Upon reading them, I instantly felt sick, angry, and, most of all, helpless. I was suddenly engulfed by a whirlwind of negative emotions that I, being a believer in the law of attraction, struggled to get rid of, but to no avail.
The first stomach-churning item was news of horrific images revealed to a CNN correspondent by Basra police. Reportedly, the police file revealed images of women tortured and killed for failing to adhere to "rules" imposed by secret fundamentalist groups there.
These rules, according to accounts by women living there, could be having to wear the veil, or not wearing lipstick; and not following them can lead to punishments as severe as mutilation, torture, and beheading.
While we are not unfamiliar with consequences of blind fanaticism, it is still hard to believe that a woman can be killed in front of her children for failing to wear a headscarf, just like it is hard to believe that in Basra last year 133 women were killed by anonymous perpetrators who decided to play god.
These "violations of Islamic teachings" by women led to their deaths and the destruction of their families as well as the terrorizing of a whole community.
While one would argue that such unlawful acts of persecution were brought about by the absence of any jurisdiction after the war on Iraq and the chaos that ensued afterwards, it is still very difficult to fathom the idea that the most basic human right of personal choice and living in dignity can be trampled on by your own people in the name of religion.
The second reported incident is even more condemnable, if that is at all possible, because if true, it is tantamount to persecution by the state of its own citizens, and is in no way related to the absence of the rule of law as is the case with the Basra crimes.
According to press reports, Human Rights Watch has claimed that HIV-positive Egyptian men are tortured and chained to hospital beds while awaiting homosexuality trials.
The report said that the men were forced to undergo HIV tests and were subjected to forced anal tests to "prove" their homosexuality. Some were then chained to hospital beds for hours awaiting "debauchery" trials.
The human rights group condemned these practices as "torturous," "unjust," and "ignorant." It also decried the treatment of HIV patients as criminals instead of providing them with the necessary medical attention.
Steering clear from any undue judgment of or argument regarding homosexuality, religious or otherwise, such practices by the state, which is supposed to be the protector of its citizens, are downright shocking. It is our governments that we should turn to if or when our rights are threatened. It is our judicial system that should be the guarantor of our most basic rights, and it is our medical system that we turn to for treatment when unwell, regardless of the reasons behind our ill-health.
What many in positions of power in our part of the world fail to understand is that allegiance is earned and not enforced. When any system starts unlawfully prosecuting its subjects, the repercussions will be grave. After all, the law of attraction never fails. What goes around does indeed come around.
--
Natasha Bukhari is a freelance journalist based in Dubai and a former press adviser to the prime minister of Jordan.
OP-ED: Natasha Bukhari
State Law or Law of the Jungle?
Published: February 14, 2008
Disturbing and tragic events in the Middle East are a daily occurrence, sadly enough. So much so, that we have grown accustomed to news of suicide bomb attacks killing tens of innocent bystanders in Iraq, or of many Palestinian civilians falling victim "by accident" to one of Israel's hunts for Hamas militants in Gaza.
Watching your own suffer due to injustice brought about by political struggle and occupation must be one of the worst feelings known to mankind, as it does not only remind one of one's own crippling helplessness, but it also unveils that all-so-common ugliness we humans can be capable of manifesting.
Two news items that surfaced last week provoked such feelings in me. Upon reading them, I instantly felt sick, angry, and, most of all, helpless. I was suddenly engulfed by a whirlwind of negative emotions that I, being a believer in the law of attraction, struggled to get rid of, but to no avail.
The first stomach-churning item was news of horrific images revealed to a CNN correspondent by Basra police. Reportedly, the police file revealed images of women tortured and killed for failing to adhere to "rules" imposed by secret fundamentalist groups there.
These rules, according to accounts by women living there, could be having to wear the veil, or not wearing lipstick; and not following them can lead to punishments as severe as mutilation, torture, and beheading.
While we are not unfamiliar with consequences of blind fanaticism, it is still hard to believe that a woman can be killed in front of her children for failing to wear a headscarf, just like it is hard to believe that in Basra last year 133 women were killed by anonymous perpetrators who decided to play god.
These "violations of Islamic teachings" by women led to their deaths and the destruction of their families as well as the terrorizing of a whole community.
While one would argue that such unlawful acts of persecution were brought about by the absence of any jurisdiction after the war on Iraq and the chaos that ensued afterwards, it is still very difficult to fathom the idea that the most basic human right of personal choice and living in dignity can be trampled on by your own people in the name of religion.
The second reported incident is even more condemnable, if that is at all possible, because if true, it is tantamount to persecution by the state of its own citizens, and is in no way related to the absence of the rule of law as is the case with the Basra crimes.
According to press reports, Human Rights Watch has claimed that HIV-positive Egyptian men are tortured and chained to hospital beds while awaiting homosexuality trials.
The report said that the men were forced to undergo HIV tests and were subjected to forced anal tests to "prove" their homosexuality. Some were then chained to hospital beds for hours awaiting "debauchery" trials.
The human rights group condemned these practices as "torturous," "unjust," and "ignorant." It also decried the treatment of HIV patients as criminals instead of providing them with the necessary medical attention.
Steering clear from any undue judgment of or argument regarding homosexuality, religious or otherwise, such practices by the state, which is supposed to be the protector of its citizens, are downright shocking. It is our governments that we should turn to if or when our rights are threatened. It is our judicial system that should be the guarantor of our most basic rights, and it is our medical system that we turn to for treatment when unwell, regardless of the reasons behind our ill-health.
What many in positions of power in our part of the world fail to understand is that allegiance is earned and not enforced. When any system starts unlawfully prosecuting its subjects, the repercussions will be grave. After all, the law of attraction never fails. What goes around does indeed come around.
--
Natasha Bukhari is a freelance journalist based in Dubai and a former press adviser to the prime minister of Jordan.
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Human Rights Groups Condemn Egypt's Crackdown on HIV Positive Men
From the Human Rights Watch (HRW)
For Immediate Release (Arabic follows)
Egypt: Spreading Crackdown on HIV Endangers Public Health
Rights Violations Drive Those in Need Underground
(Cairo, February 15, 2008) – Cairo police arrested four more men suspected of having HIV, signaling a wider crackdown that endangers public health and violates basic human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today in a joint statement.
The recent arrests bring to 12 the number of men arrested in a campaign against people police suspect of being HIV-positive. Four have already been sentenced to a year in jail and eight are still in custody. The two organizations called on Egyptian authorities to respect the men's human rights and to immediately release them so as not to cause lasting damage to the country's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts.
"In their misguided attempt to apply Egypt's unjust law on homosexual conduct, authorities are carrying on a crackdown against people living with HIV/AIDS," said Rebecca Schleifer, advocate for the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "This not only violates the most basic rights of people living with HIV. It also threatens public health, by making it dangerous for anyone to seek information about HIV prevention or treatment."
The most recent arrests occurred after police followed up on information coerced from men already in detention, according to the Health and Human Rights Program of the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). Two of the newly detained men tested positive for HIV. One had his detention extended by 15 days at his February 12 court hearing, with the prosecutor and judge both claiming he was a danger to public health. Another has a hearing scheduled for February 23.
As in all previous cases, authorities forced the new detainees to undergo HIV testing without their consent. All those testing positive have been held in Cairo hospitals, chained to their beds.
"Arbitrary arrests, forcible HIV tests, and physical abuse only add to the disgraceful record of Egypt's criminal justice system, where torture and ill-treatment are greeted with impunity," said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International' s Middle East and North Africa Program.
The wave of arrests began in October 2007, when police intervened between two men having an argument on a street in central Cairo. When one of them told the officers that he was HIV-positive, police immediately took them both to the Morality Police office and opened an investigation against them for homosexual conduct. Police demanded the names of their friends and sexual contacts during interrogations.
The two men told lawyers that officers slapped and beat them for refusing to sign statements the police wrote for them. The men spent four days in the Morality Police office handcuffed to an iron desk, and were left to sleep on the floor. Police later subjected the two men to forensic anal examinations designed to "prove" that they had engaged in homosexual conduct.
Such forcible examinations to detect "evidence" of homosexuality are not only medically spurious, but also can amount to torture.
Police then arrested two more men because their photographs or telephone numbers were found on the first two detainees. Authorities subjected all four men to HIV tests without their consent. All four are still in detention, pending prosecutors' decisions on whether to bring charges of homosexual conduct. The first two arrestees, who reportedly tested HIV-positive, are still being held in hospital, handcuffed to their beds.
A prosecutor reportedly told one of the men who tested positive for HIV: "People like you should be burnt alive. You do not deserve to live."
In November 2007, police raided an apartment where one of these men had previously lived, and arrested four more men. All were charged with homosexual conduct. These men told lawyers that police ill-treated them by beating one across the head, and forcing all four to stand in a painful position for three hours with their arms lifted in the air. Authorities also tested these men for HIV without their consent.
A Cairo court convicted these four men on January 13, 2008 under Article 9(c) of Law 10/1961, which criminalizes the "habitual practice of debauchery [fujur]" – a term used to penalize consensual homosexual conduct in Egyptian law. Defense attorneys told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that the prosecution based its case on the coerced and repudiated statements taken from the men, without providing witnesses or other evidence to support the charges, which all the men denied. On February 2, 2008, a Cairo appeals court upheld their one-year prison sentences.
Criminalizing consensual, adult homosexual conduct is a violation of Egypt's obligations under international human rights law to respect and protect individual privacy and personal autonomy. The apparent use of Article 9(c) in these cases to detain people on the basis of their declared HIV status, and to test them without their consent for HIV infection, also violates those international protections, as well as the prohibition on arbitrary detention. Amnesty International considers that the imprisonment of individuals for actual or alleged consensual same-sex relations between adults in private is a grave violation of human rights, and that individuals held solely on that basis are prisoners of conscience who should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the Egyptian authorities to immediately cease any arrests based on people's real or suspected HIV status. In addition to seeking the release of all 12 men, the two organizations also called on authorities to end the practice of chaining detainees to their hospital beds, and to ensure that the men receive the highest available standard of medical care for any serious health conditions.
The two organizations urged Egypt to undertake training for all criminal-justice officials on medical facts and international human rights standards in relation to HIV, and to halt immediately all testing of detainees without their consent.
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on the current crackdown, please visit:
http://hrw.org/ english/docs/ 2008/02/05/ egypt17972. htm
To read the March 2004 Human Rights Watch report, "In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice in Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct," please visit:
http://hrw.org/ reports/2004/ egypt0304/
For more information, please contact:
In London, Nicole Choueiry, Amnesty International (Arabic, English, French): +44-78-31-640- 170 (mobile)
In London, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International (Arabic, English, French): +44-77-68-888- 934 (mobile)
In Cairo, Gasser Abdel-Razek, Human Rights Watch (Arabic, English): +20-22-794-5036; or +20-10-502-9999 (mobile)
In New York, Scott Long, Human Rights Watch (English): +;1-212-216-1297; or +;1-646-641-5655 (mobile)
In New York, Rebecca Schleifer, Human Rights Watch (English, Spanish): +;1-212-216-1273
**
للنشر الفوري
مصر: توسيع نطاق الحملة ضد الإيدز يُعرِّض الصحة العامة للخطر
انتهاك الحقوق يدفع بمن يحتاجون الرعاية للاختباء
(القاهرة، 15 فبراير/شباط 2008) – قالت منظمة العفو الدولية وهيومن رايتس ووتش اليوم في بيان مشترك إن الشرطة المصرية اعتقلت أربعة رجال آخرين للاشتباه بالإصابة بالإيدز، وهي بادرة توحي بتوسيع الحملة ضد الإيدز؛ مما يُعرِّض الصحة العامة للخطر وينتهك حقوق الإنسان الأساسية.
وإثر الاعتقالات الأخيرة أصبح عدد الرجال المعتقلين في الحملة ضد الأشخاص الذين تشتبه الشرطة في إصابتهم بالإيدز هو 12 شخصاً. وتم الحكم على أربعة منهم بالفعل بالسجن، وما زال ثمانية رهن الاحتجاز. وطالبت المنظمتان السلطات المصرية باحترام حقوق الرجال الإنسانية وأن تخلي سبيلهم فوراً حتى لا تسبب ضرراً مستديماً يلحق بجهود البلاد للوقاية من مرض نقص المناعة المكتسبة (الإيدز).
وقالت ريبيكا شليفر، المتحدثة باسم برنامج الإيدز وحقوق الإنسان في هيومن رايتس ووتش: "في إطار محاولتها المُضللة لتطبيق قانون مصر غير العادل الخاص بالسلوك المثلي، تستمر السلطات في شن حملة ضد الأشخاص المصابين بالإيدز"، وتابعت قائلة: "وهذا لا ينتهك فقط أكثر الحقوق أساسية لدى الأشخاص المصابين بالإيدز، بل هو أيضاً يهدد الصحة العامة، بجعل سعي أي شخص للحصول على المعلومات عن الوقاية أو العلاج من الإيدز أمر ينطوي على الخطورة".
وقد وقعت الاعتقالات الأحدث إثر تحرك الشرطة بناء على معلومات تم استخلاصها بالإكراه من الرجال المُحتجزين، حسبما ذكر برنامج الصحة وحقوق الإنسان في المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية. واتضح إصابة اثنين من الرجال المحتجزين حديثاً بالإيدز. وتم تجديد حبس أحدهما لمدة 15 يوماً في جلسة محكمة بتاريخ 12 فبراير/شباط، وزعم فيها الادعاء والقاضي معاً أن هذا الشخص خطرٌ على الصحة العامة. وتم تحديد موعد جلسة أخرى في 23 فبراير/شباط.
وكما حدث في الحالات السابقة جميعاً، فقد أجبرت السلطات المحتجزين الجدد على الخضوع لاختبار الإيدز دون موافقتهم. وتم احتجاز كل من اتضح إصابتهم بالإيدز في مستشفيات بالقاهرة، مع تقييدهم إلى أسرّتهم بالسلاسل.
وقالت حسيبة حاج صحراوي، نائبة مدير برنامج الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا في منظمة العفو الدولية: "إن الاعتقالات التعسفية واختبارات الإيدز الجبرية والإساءات البدنية لا تفعل أكثر من الإضافة إلى سجل نظام العدالة الجنائية المصري الشائن، حيث يلقى كل من التعذيب والمعاملة السيئة احتفاءً يتمثل في التمكين من الإفلات من العقاب جراء ارتكابهما".
وقد بدأت موجة الاعتقالات في أكتوبر/تشرين الأول 2007، حين تدخلت الشرطة في شجار بين رجلين في أحد شوارع وسط القاهرة. وحين قال أحدهما للضباط إنه مصاب بالإيدز؛ نقلتهما الشرطة فوراً إلى قسم شرطة الآداب وفتحت تحقيقاً ضدهما للاشتباه بالتورط في السلوك المثلي. وطالبت الشرطة أثناء التحقيقات بأسماء أصدقائهما ومن تربطهم علاقات جنسية بهما.
وقال الرجلان للمحامين إن الضباط قاموا بصفعهما وضربهما جرّاء رفض التوقيع على أقوال كتبتها الشرطة لهما. وأمضى الرجلان أربعة أيام في قسم شرطة الآداب وهما مقيدا الأيدي إلى مكتب حديدي، وتُركا ليناما على الأرض. وفيما بعد عرّضت الشرطة الرجلين لاختبارات طب شرعي شرجية مصممة لـ"إثبات" أنهما متورطان في سلوك مثلي.
ومثل هذه الاختبارات المصممة للتحقق من وجود "الدليل" على المثلية الجنسية، ليست فقط خاطئة طبياً، بل هي أيضاً ترقى لمستوى كونها تعذيباً.
ثم اعتقلت الشرطة رجلين آخرين جراء العثور على صور فوتوغرافية لهما أو أرقام هواتفهما مع أول شخصين محتجزين. وعرّضت السلطات الرجال الأربعة لاختبارات الإيدز دون موافقتهم. وما زال الأربعة جميعاً رهن الاحتجاز بانتظار قرارات الادعاء بتوجيه الاتهامات إليهم بانتهاج السلوك المثلي. وما زال أول شخصين معتقلين منهم، اللذان أفادت التقارير ثبوت إصابتهما بالإيدز حسب الاختبارات، رهن الاحتجاز في المستشفى، وهما مقيدان إلى سريريهما.
وتناقلت التقارير إخبار أحد رجال الادعاء لأحد الرجال الذين اتضح إصابتهم بالإيدز: "أمثالك يجب أن يحرقوا أحياءً. أنت لا تستحق الحياة".
وفي نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2007، داهمت الشرطة شقة سكنية كان يقيم فيها أحد هؤلاء الرجال فيما سبق، واعتقلت أربعة رجال آخرين. وتم توجيه الاتهام إليهم جميعاً بالتورط في السلوك المثلي. وقال هؤلاء الرجال للمحامين إن الشرطة أساءت معاملتهم بضرب أحدهم على رأسه وإجبار كل الأربعة على الوقوف في وضع مؤلم لثلاث ساعات فيما كانت أذرعهم مرفوعة في الهواء. كما اختبرت السلطات الرجال الأربعة للتحقق من الإصابة بالإيدز دون موافقتهم.
وأدانت محكمة بالقاهرة هؤلاء الرجال الأربعة في 13 يناير/كانون الثاني 2008 بموجب المادة 9(ج) من قانون رقم 10 لسنة 1961، والذي يُجرّم "اعتياد ممارسة الفجور" وهو مصطلح يستخدم لتجريم السلوك المثلي الطوعي في القانون المصري. وقال محامو الدفاع لمنظمة العفو الدولية وهيومن رايتس ووتش إن النيابة أسندت قضيتها إلى بيانات مستخلصة بالإكراه تبرأ منها أصحابها وتم أخذها من الرجال، وهذا دون استدعاء شهود أو غيرها من الأدلة لدعم الاتهامات التي أنكرها كل الرجال. وفي 2 فبراير/شباط 2008 أيدت محكمة استئناف بالقاهرة الحُكم بالسجن لمدة عام على الرجال.
وتجريم السلوك المثلي الطوعي بين البالغين ينتهك التزامات مصر بموجب القانون الدولي لحقوق الإنسان فيما يتعلق بوجوب حماية خصوصية الأفراد وحرية الفرد في بدنه. والاستخدام الظاهر للمادة 9 (ج) في هذه القضايا لاحتجاز الأشخاص بناء على إصابتهم بالإيدز، ولاختبارهم دون موافقتهم للتحقق من إصابتهم بالإيدز، ينتهك أيضاً تدابير الحماية الدولية، والحق في حرية الفرد في بدنه. وتعتبر منظمة العفو الدولية أن حبس الأفراد جراء إقامة علاقات جنسية مع أشخاص من نفس الجنس طوعاً، سواء حدثت هذه العلاقات فعلياً أو بموجب مزاعم بهذا، هو انتهاك جسيم لحقوق الإنسان، وأن الأفراد المحبوسين بناء على هذا السبب فقط هم من سجناء الرأي ويجب أن يُخلى سبيلهم فوراً ودون شروط.
ودعت منظمة العفو الدولية وهيومن رايتس ووتش السلطات المصرية لأن توقف فوراً اعتقالات الأفراد بناء على إصابتهم بالإيدز أو للاشتباه بالإصابة. وبالإضافة لطلب إخلاء سبيل الاثني عشر رجلاً، طالبت المنظمتان السلطات أيضاً بإيقاف ممارسة تقييد المحتجزين إلى أسرّتهم بالمستشفى، وضمان أن جميع الرجال يلقون أعلى مستوى متوافر من الرعاية الطبية لأي مضاعفات صحية جسيمة قد تكون لديهم.
ودعت المنظمتان مصر إلى تدريب مسؤولي العدالة الجنائية جميعاً على الحقائق الطبية ومعايير حقوق الإنسان الدولية الخاصة بالإيدز، وبأن يكفوا فوراً عن إجراء الفحوصات على المحتجزين دون موافقتهم.
للمزيد من تغطية هيومن رايتس ووتش عن هذه الحملة، يُرجى زيارة:
http://hrw.org/ arabic/docs/ 2008/02/05/ egypt17979. htm
للاطلاع على تقرير هيومن رايتس ووتش الصادر في مارس/آذار 2004 بعنوان "في زمن التعذيب: إهدار العدالة في الحملة المصرية ضد السلوك المثلي"، يُرجى زيارة: http://www.hrw. org/reports/ 2004/egypt0304/ egypt0304arabic. pdf
لمزيد من المعلومات، يُرجى الاتصال:
في لندن، نيكول شويري، العفو الدولية (العربية والإنجليزية والفرنسية): +44-78-31-640- 170 (خلوي)
في لندن، حسيبة حاج صحراوي، العفو الدولية (العربية والإنجليزية والفرنسية): +44-77-68-888- 934 (خلوي)
في القاهرة، جاسر عبد الرازق، هيومن رايتس ووتش (العربية والإنجليزية): +20-22-794-5036 أو +20-10-502-9999 (خلوي)
في نيويورك، سكوت لونغ، هيومن رايتس ووتش (الإنجليزية): +;1-212-216-1297 أو +;1-646-641-5655 (خلوي)
في نيويورك، ريبيكا شليفر، هيومن رايتس ووتش (الإنجليزية والإسبانية):
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen: A controversial film breaks open the taboo topic of homosexuality and Islam
| From Egypt Today (The Magazine of Egypt) February 2008 Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen A controversial film breaks open the taboo topic of homosexuality and Islam By Ethar El-Katatney |
HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT a comfortable, much less a popular, topic among Muslims. Broach the subject in the Middle East, and you're likely to hear a response like the one Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave US audiences last year: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country." At best, society adopts a 'don't ask, don't tell' approach – do what you will, just don't advertise it.
A controversial new documentary, A Jihad for Love, is shattering that taboo by interviewing homosexual Muslims, including an Egyptian gay man 'outed' by his arrest during the 2001 Queen Boat raid and an Egyptian lesbian still hiding her sexuality from society. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma had dual motivations: first, to challenge the mindset that Muslim and gay are mutually exclusive, and second, to challenge the Western world's own Islamophobia.
As a Muslim and openly admitted homosexual, Sharma had to challenge himself to make the documentary in a way that would neither make Islam look bad nor be apologetic. "Sharing some of the stories of condemnation, isolation, [and] pain would make it easy to issue a blanket critique of Islam," he explains, "[but] as a Muslim I could not allow myself to [] join the bandwagon of Islamophobes. I knew that I had to be a defender of the faith as a Muslim filmmaker and at the same time engage in a critique of what I knew was wrong in orthodox Islam's condemnation of homosexuality."
Born and raised in India, 34-year-old Sharma is currently touring the world, screening his 81-minute documentary in Canada, South Africa and Europe. Released in September 2007, A Jihad for Love is his first venture and an emotional opus; it cost $2 million and took six years to complete, with filming in four continents, 12 countries and nine languages.
The impetus for the documentary came after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Sharma, who had moved to the United States for a Masters degree program, suddenly found that his religious identity and skin color made him a target. He realized he had to have "the second and bigger coming out of my life — to come out as a Muslim." He says that America, at the time, was suffering from a climate of hatred."Western media," Sharma notes, "tends to portray Islam as a monolithic concept, [and] the Islam I knew was under threat. So I [thought] why not take the story of Islam and tell it through Islam's most unlikely storytellers, which are gay and lesbian Muslims."
Courtesy of Parvez Sharma |
| Maha (right) with her partner Maryam at the Citadel in Cairo |
Sharma feels that the non-Muslim's view of Islam has been dominated by the perspectives of Western media and violent extremists. For example, in Arabic jihad literally means "struggle," but the Western media uses it almost exclusively to mean "holy war." Sharma's film title seeks to reclaim the word in the sense of jihad al-nafs, the Islamic concept of "struggle against the self."|
"[I was] saying that jihad is not about violence, which is all people talk about," explains Sharma. "I called [the movie] A Jihad for Love because it was so compelling to put the word 'jihad' and the word 'love' together, because we were taking a profound Islamic concept and together with that using the word 'love', which is a universal Islamic condition."
The Characters
Sharma started the project in 2002 and ended up with over 400 hours of footage of 20-some gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Muslims in countries where he says, "the silence was the loudest." The result is the first and only feature-length documentary to explore the complex relationship between Islam and homosexuality, presenting six 'stories,' each looking at the lives of individuals and couples from a different part of the Muslim world.
Mazen, an Egyptian man in his 20s, was one of the infamous Cairo 52, a group arrested in May 2001 aboard the Queen Boat, a floating nightclub on the Nile. Mazen was beaten, forced to stand trial twice on charges of "habitual debauchery" and sentenced to a total of four years in prison (one year in his first trial, three years in his second). He fled to Paris before serving the second sentence.
Courtesy Moez Masoud |
| Egyptian daa'y Moez Masoud |
"[All the characters in the film] are my children," says Sharma, "but Mazen's story I consider very, very powerful because he was targeted by the state [and] he was one of many people who had to leave their homeland. [He had to leave] because the government decided that in order to appease people like the ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] they had to suddenly talk about [] Islamic morality, [and] it made sense to go and target the most vulnerable group in society, which was the gay Muslim men."
The filmmaker says the "spiritual backbone" of the film is Mushin Hendricks, a former South African imam cast out by his community when he came out of the closet. He agreed to be filmed as soon as he was sure Sharma wasn't going to portray gay Muslims as promiscuous. In a phone interview with et, Hendricks says that he came from a religious family, and that his grandfather was also an imam. Because of this, he hid his personal realization since the age of 12. He even got married to see if he could live a 'normal' life, although he told his wife beforehand that he was gay.
"She was shocked but told me, 'I love you and I still want to marry you and help you overcome this'," Hendricks recalls. "Six years down the road we knew this wasn't working. The best thing is to accept yourself as you are, and only Allah will judge you."
Trying to understand the Qur'an from a point of view that accepts all that is different, Hendricks then began his own path of study, starting at the University of Islamic Studies, a branch of Al-Azhar, in Karachi, Pakistan. "I didn't study extensively as I only needed the basics in order to do my independent research," he says. "I did not need to be 'institutionalized' and thus did not study 'under' a scholar or follow a particular school [of Islamic thought]."
Hendricks' research included interpretation of the Qu'ran in a modern context and studies of inconsistencies in the hadith. He eventually came to the conclusion that consensual homosexual relationships were permissible in Islam. Hendricks now travels around the US giving workshops to Muslims about homosexuality in Islam and offering a critical look at hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]), from which most of the condemnations of homosexuality come.
Courtesy Parvez Sharma |
| Sharma says that for the Muslims he filmed, "their sexual identity is second to their religious identity. |
Maryam, a Moroccan, and Maha, an Egyptian, are a lesbian couple who met online. Sharma says that when he met Maryam at the very start of his filming, "she couldn't even articulate the word lesbian because she thought it was haram (forbidden) and sinful to say the word." It was only in 2006 that she agreed to be filmed.
"I remember walking through the streets of Cairo with them," says Sharma, "[and] going to the places they hold dear to their hearts, like the Citadel. It was really profound because I was able to capture the invisibility that society has put upon them in the heart of the Arab world and Arab thought throughout the centuries."
In an interview with international press, the veiled Maha defended her actions, saying, "If asked of my sin on Judgment Day, I will stand before God and say that my sin is that I loved [] and Allah is merciful and forgiving."
The Challenges
Funding was a major obstacle and part of the reason the film took so long to produce. In the end, it was co-produced by five major international broadcasters, and funded by over 600 individuals and 20 foundations.
To find people willing to talk on camera, Sharma tapped into the underground networks of gay and lesbian Muslims living in Muslim countries through emails, telephone calls, and organizations working discreetly with human rights groups.
Sharma says gaining the necessary trust was a jihad of its own. The director recalls, "It was a struggle because I was going to people and I was telling them to talk about two very personal things which no one would want to share on camera: their sexuality and their relationship with Allah."
He says what made it easier was that he was a Muslim gay man going through the same struggles that they were. "If I was a white, Western filmmaker wielding the camera, this film would certainly not have been made."
Those who finally came forward to tell their stories were doing their best to negotiate a relationship with Islam even though they knew that the majority of people believed the religion was rejecting them. They felt that Islam was at a tipping point and thus were willing to take the risk.
"All the people in my film are coming out as Muslims," says Sharma. "They are proud to be gay, but fundamentally they're coming out as Muslims and saying they're as Muslim as anybody else. Their sexual identity is second to their religious identity."
After convincing people to appear on screen, Sharma had to shoot the actual documentary — without governmental permission. Among what he calls "hard core guerrilla filmmaking tactics:" He had to pass himself off as a tourist, using only handheld cameras. In case he was caught, he made sure that the first and last 15 minutes of a tape were tourist-esque footage. He never put the tapes in his carry-on luggage, and left backups with friends until he had safely left the country. He had a few close calls with police, including one in Egypt in Tahrir square, but managed to talk himself out of trouble.
The Reaction
A Jihad for Love premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007, where it received official screening honors. It has also been screened in major festivals including the Festival do Rio in Brazil, and the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in South Africa. Theatrical distribution deals, particularly in North America and Europe, are in the works. Audiences are raving; Sharma and his documentary have been featured in international newspapers The Guardian and The New York Times, Reuters newswire, as well as on the CBC, BBC and Oprah Winfrey's talk show, just to name a few.
"The reaction has been really positive, to tell you the truth," says Sharma, adding that Muslims who see the film discover it is "actually a defense of Islam and speaks very respectfully.
"I remember in the Toronto screening there was a very religious Shi'a woman from Iran who came to me and said, 'Parvez, I came to this film with my fists clenched [] I was so angry and I expected a film that would criticize Islam. And as I was watching the film my hand started opening up and [] so [did] my heart. I'm leaving this film realizing that this film is a poem to Islam'."
Media coverage so far has largely been from Western press, apart from articles in the Daily News Egypt and the Arabic daily Al-Arabiya, and one TV spot with Al-Arabiya's Muna Shikaki in Dubai. While the Al-Arabiya article was neutral, within an hour of being published there were more than 300 comments of "the usual nonsense," says Sharma. The emails he receives berate him, condemn him to hell and, "if they are nice, ask me to still seek forgiveness while there is still time."
"I was upset about that because none of these people have seen this film. There is a herd mentality where people get outraged about issues but none of them bother to read a book, or see a film. I advise people who reacted to see the film and then judge."
Still, not everyone who has seen the film is smiling. In South Africa, the Muslim Judicial Council issued a hukum (judgment), similar to a fatwa, calling homosexuals murtads, apostates. In many schools of Islamic jurisprudence, the sin of apostasy carries the death penalty.
The Future
Sharma believes that the release of his film marks the beginning of a 'jihad of the camera', a movement equivalent to last century's 'jihad of the pen.' He wants to screen the movie in Muslim countries, but admits it is unlikely to happen. Nevertheless, he says that he will get the movie to every Muslim that needs to see it, even if by underground means. In Egypt, he hopes to screen it the American University in Cairo, but if that fails — as he admits it probably will — the next best route is through academic circles.
"I have hundreds of friends in Cairo who are interested in helping out with this, and I [will] seek that help. I want to organize screenings in peoples' [houses] and I will do so in the coming year."
Sharma is also accepting donations to cover the film's post-production costs and fund his planned multi-year Muslim Dialogue Project, "where we will create a movement of tremendous change, engage the 'ulama (Islamic scholars), change lives [] change Muslim hearts and minds, stop 19-year-old [homosexual] Muslims from committing suicide, and have the first-ever Muslim conference discussing issues relating to homosexuality with specialists from all over the world." A book and another film are also in the works.
It starts, however, with Sharma's jihad: "With this film I plan to go into every mosque, every Muslim community that will let me in, to create dialogue, to break down the walls of silence, to help the many unsung lives and to create change for years to come."
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Yogyakarta Principles - from the Human Rights Watch
From Scott Long at the Human Rights Watch
This essay, from the 2008 Human Rights Watch World Report, may be of interest. An Arabic translation is also attached. The essay can also be found, in English, Spanish, and Arabic on the HRW website at http://hrw.org/ wr2k8/yogyakarta /index.htm , and there's an audio commentary as well.
This essay, from the 2008 Human Rights Watch World Report, may be of interest. An Arabic translation is also attached. The essay can also be found, in English, Spanish, and Arabic on the HRW website at http://hrw.org/ wr2k8/yogyakarta /index.htm , and there's an audio commentary as well.
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Egypt: Stop Criminalizing HIV - from the Human Rights Watch
For Immediate Release (Arabic follows)
Egypt: Stop Criminalizing HIV
HIV-Motivated Arrests and Convictions Threaten Justice and Public Health
(New York, February 5, 2008) – A series of arrests in Cairo sparked by one man's admission to police that he was HIV-positive endangers public health as well as human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch called on Egyptian authorities to overturn the convictions of four men for the "habitual practice of debauchery," and to free four others who are held pending trial. The government should end arbitrary arrests based on HIV status and take steps to end prejudice and misinformation about HIV/AIDS.
"These shocking arrests and trials embody both ignorance and injustice," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Egypt threatens not just its international reputation but its own population if it responds to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with prison terms instead of prevention and care."
The arrests began in October 2007, when police stopped two men having an altercation on a street in central Cairo. When one of them told the officers that he was HIV-positive, police immediately took them both to the Morality Police office and opened an investigation against them for homosexual conduct. The two men told human rights defenders that they were slapped and beaten for refusing to sign statements the police wrote for them. They spent four days in the Morality Police office handcuffed to an iron desk, sleeping on the floor. Police later subjected the two men to forensic anal examinations designed to "prove" that they had engaged in homosexual conduct.
Human Rights Watch has documented that such examinations to detect "evidence" of homosexuality are not only medically spurious but constitute torture.
Police then arrested two more men because their photographs or telephone numbers were found on the first two detainees. Authorities subjected all to HIV tests without their consent. All four are still in detention, pending prosecutors' decision on whether to bring charges of homosexual conduct. The first two arrestees, who reportedly tested HIV-positive, are being held in a Cairo hospital, handcuffed to their beds and only unchained for an hour each day.
Meanwhile, police apparently placed the apartment where one of the men had lived under surveillance. On November 20, two days after a new tenant had assumed the lease, police raided the apartment and detained four other men.
According to the arrest report, the men were fully dressed and were not engaging in any illegal acts at the time of the arrests. However, all were charged with homosexual conduct, apparently solely on the basis that they were found in a dwelling formerly occupied by one of the earlier detainees.
People who have spoken to the four men since their arrest told Human Rights Watch that a non-commissioned officer in the police station beat one detainee on the head several times. Police allegedly forced the four men to stand in a painful position for three hours with their arms lifted in the air. They were provided no food, drink, or blankets during their first four days of detention. Authorities also tested these men for HIV without their consent. One of the men reportedly said that the prosecutor, when informing him that he had tested positive for HIV, told him: "People like you should be burnt alive. You do not deserve to live."
A Cairo court convicted these four men on January 13, 2008 under Article 9(c) of Law 10/1961, which criminalizes the "habitual practice of debauchery [fujur] – a term used to penalize consensual homosexual conduct in Egyptian law. According to defense attorneys, the prosecution based their case only on coerced and repudiated statements taken from the men, and neither called witnesses nor produced other evidence to counter the men's pleas of not guilty. On February 2, 2008, a Cairo appeals court upheld their one-year prison sentence. One of them is held in a Cairo hospital, chained to his bed 23 hours a day.
"These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished," said Long. "HIV tests forcibly taken without consent, ill-treatment in detention, trials driven by prejudice, and convictions without evidence all violate international law."
In private letters sent to the Egyptian Public Prosecutor, Counselor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud Abdel Meguid, on November 29, 2007 and on January 8, 2008, Human Rights Watch expressed its grave concern about the arrests and their consequences for Egypt's efforts against HIV/AIDS.
Human Rights Watch urged authorities to drop the charges, end the practice of chaining detainees in hospital, and ensure that the men receive the highest available standard of medical care for any serious health conditions. It also urged Egypt to undertake training for all criminal-justice officials on medical facts and international human rights standards in relation to HIV, and to halt immediately all testing of detainees without their consent.
Criminalizing consensual, adult homosexual conduct violates human rights protections to individual privacy and personal autonomy under international law. The apparent use of Article 9(c) in these cases to detain people on the basis of their declared HIV status, and to test them without their consent for HIV infection, also violates those international protections, and the right to bodily autonomy.
International human rights law clearly affirms that prisoners and detainees retain the absolute right to protection against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment – and enjoy the right to the highest attainable standard of health, as guaranteed in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Egypt has been party since 1982.
To read the March 2004 Human Rights Watch report, "In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice in Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct," please visit:
http://hrw.org/ reports/2004/ egypt0304/
For more information, please contact:
In New York, Scott Long (English): +;1-212-216-1297; or +;1-646-641-5655 (mobile)
In New York, Juliana Cano Nieto (English, Spanish): +;1-212-216-1233
In Cairo, Gasser Abdel-Razek (Arabic, English): +20-22-794-5036; or +20-10-502-9999 (mobile)
للنشر الفوري
مصر: يجب الكف عن تجريم الإيدز
الاعتقالات والإدانات بدافع من الإصابة بالإيدز تهدد سير العدالة والصحة العامة
(نيويورك، 5 فبراير/شباط 2008) – قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش اليوم إن الصحة العامة وحقوق الإنسان مُعرضة للتهديد جراء سلسلة من الاعتقالات وقعت في القاهرة، وكانت قد بدأت باعتراف أحد الرجال للشرطة بإصابته بالإيدز.
وطالبت هيومن رايتس ووتش السلطات المصرية بإلغاء قرارات إدانة أربعة رجال جراء "اعتياد ممارسة الفجور" وبإخلاء سبيل أربعة آخرين محتجزين بانتظار المحاكمة. وعلى الحكومة أن تكف عن الاعتقالات التعسفية بناء على إصابة الأشخاص بمرض نقص المناعة المكتسبة (الإيدز) وأن تتخذ خطوات نحو إيقاف التحيز المسبق والمعلومات المغلوطة التي تحيط بمرضى الإيدز.
وقال سكوت لونغ مدير برنامج المثليات والمثليين وذوي التفضيل الجنسي المزدوج والمتحولين جنسياً في هيومن رايتس ووتش: "هذه الاعتقالات والمحاكمات الصادمة تنطوي على الجهل والظلم"، وتابع قائلاً: "ولا تخاطر مصر بسمعتها الدولية فقط، بل أيضاً بسكانها أنفسهم، إذا هي استجابت لمرض الإيدز بفرض أحكام السجن بدلاً من الوقاية والعلاج".
وبدأت الاعتقالات في أكتوبر/تشرين الأول 2007 حين أوقفت الشرطة رجلين كانا يتشاجران في أحد شوارع وسط البلد بالقاهرة. وحين قال أحدهم للضباط إنه مصاب بالإيدز سرعان ما نقلتهما الشرطة إلى قسم شرطة الآداب وفتحت محضراً ضدهما بتهمة السلوك المثلي. وقال الرجلان للنشطاء المدافعين عن حقوق الإنسان إنهما تعرضا للصفع والضرب جراء رفض التوقيع على بيانات كتبتها الشرطة لهما. وأمضيا أربعة أيام في قسم شرطة الآداب مربوطان إلى مكتب معدني، وناما على الأرض. وفيما بعد عرّضت الشرطة الرجلين لاختبارات الطب الشرعي الشرجية المُصممة لـ"إثبات" أنهما متورطان في سلوك مثلي.
وقد وثقت هيومن رايتس ووتش هذه الاختبارات للتحقق من وجود "دليل" على المثلية، وخلصت إلى أنها ليست فقط خطأ من الناحية الطبية، بل أيضاً تنطوي على التعذيب.
ثم اعتقلت الشرطة رجلين آخرين بسبب صور فوتوغرافية لهما وأرقام هواتف تم العثور عليها مع أحد المحتجزين الأولين. وعرضت السلطات جميع المعتقلين لاختبارات الإيدز دون موافقتهم. وما زال الأربعة رهن الاحتجاز بانتظار قرار النيابة بأن توجه إليهم الاتهامات بانتهاج السلوك المثلي من عدمه. ويتم احتجاز أول معتقلين – اللذان تناقلت التقارير إصابتهما بالإيدز – في مستشفى بالقاهرة، وهما مربوطان إلى سريريهما ولا يتم فك قيودهما إلى لمدة ساعة يومياً.
وفي الوقت نفسه يبدو أن الشرطة وضعت الشقة التي كان يقيم فيها أحد الرجال تحت المراقبة. وفي 20 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني، بعد يومين من استئجار الشقة من قبل مُستأجر جديد، داهمت الشرطة الشقة واحتجزت أربعة رجال آخرين.
وطبقاً لقرار الاعتقال، فقد كان الرجال جميعاً في كامل ثيابهم ولم يكونوا منخرطين في أي أفعال غير مشروعة حين تم الاعتقال. إلا أنهم تم اتهامهم جميعاً بانتهاج السلوك المثلي، والواضح أن السبب الوحيد لهذا هو تواجدهم في محل سكن كان يشغله أحد المحتجزين السابقين فيما مضى.
وقال أشخاص تحدثوا إلى الرجال الأربعة منذ اعتقالهم، لـ هيومن رايتس ووتش إن ضابط صف في قسم الشرطة قام بضرب أحد المحتجزين على رأسه عدة مرات. ويُزعم أن الشرطة أجبرت الرجال الأربعة على الوقوف في وضع مؤلم لثلاث ساعات وأذرعهم مرفوعة في الهواء. ولم يتم مدهم بطعام أو شراب أو بطانيات أثناء أول أربعة أيام لهم رهن الاحتجاز. كما اختبرت السلطات الرجال لتحري إصابتهم بمرض الإيدز دون موافقتهم. وتناقلت التقارير قول أحد الرجال إن وكيل النيابة قال له حين عرف منه أنه مُصاب بالإيدز: "الناس من أمثالك يجب أن يُحرقوا أحياءً. أنت لا تستحق الحياة".
وأدانت محكمة بالقاهرة هؤلاء الرجال الأربعة في 13 يناير/كانون الثاني 2008 بموجب المادة 9(ج) من قانون رقم 10 لسنة 1961، والذي يُجرّم "اعتياد ممارسة الفجور" وهو مصطلح يستخدم لتجريم السلوك المثلي الطوعي في القانون المصري. وطبقأً لمحاميّ الدفاع، فإن النيابة أسندت قضيتها إلى بيانات مستخلصة بالإكراه تبرأ منها أصحابها وتم أخذها من الرجال، ولم تستدع النيابة الشهود ولا هي قدمت أي دليل آخر لإثبات بطلان ادعاء الرجال بالبراءة من التهم المنسوبة إليهم. وفي 2 فبراير/شباط 2008 أيدت محكمة استئناف بالقاهرة الحُكم بالسجن لمدة عام على الرجال. ويتم احتجاز أحدهم في مستشفى بالقاهرة، وهو مربوط إلى فراشه لمدة 23 ساعة يومياً.
وقال سكوت لونغ: "يظهر من هذه القضايا أن الشرطة المصرية تتحرك بناء على اعتقاد خطير بأن الإيدز ليس حالة مرضية تستوجب العلاج، بل جريمة تستوجب العقاب". وأضاف: "اختبارات الإيدز الإجبارية دون موافقة، والمعاملة السيئة قيد الاحتجاز، والمحاكمات المدفوعة بالتحيزات المسبقة والإدانات دون أدلة؛ كلها انتهاكات للقانون الدولي".
وأبدت هيومن رايتس ووتش عميق قلقها إزاء الاعتقالات وتبعاتها على جهود مكافحة الإيدز في مصر، وهذا في رسالتين خاصتين بعثت بهما إلى النائب العام المصري المستشار عبد المجيد محمود عبد المجيد، بتاريخ 29 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2007، وفي 8 يناير/كانون الثاني 2008.
ودعت هيومن رايتس ووتش السلطات إلى إسقاط الاتهامات والكف عن ممارسة تقييد المحتجزين في المستشفيات، وضمان أن الرجال يلقون أعلى معايير متوافرة من الرعاية الطبية لأية مشكلات صحية جسيمة. كما دعت مصر إلى تدريب مسؤولي العدالة الجنائية جميعاً على الحقائق الطبية ومعايير حقوق الإنسان الدولية الخاصة بالإيدز، وبأن يكفوا فوراً عن إجراء الفحوصات على المحتجزين دون موافقتهم.
وتجريم السلوك المثلي الطوعي بين البالغين ينتهك تدابير حماية حقوق الإنسان لخصوصية الأفراد وحرية الفرد في بدنه بموجب القانون الدولي. والاستخدام الظاهر للمادة 9 (ج) في هذه القضايا لاحتجاز الأشخاص بناء على إصابتهم بالإيدز، ولاختبارهم دون موافقتهم للتحقق من إصابتهم بالإيدز، ينتهك أيضاً تدابير الحماية الدولية، والحق في حرية الفرد في بدنه.
ويؤكد قانون حقوق الإنسان الدولي بوضوح على أن السجناء والمحتجزين لهم الحق المطلق في الحماية من التعذيب وغيرها من ضروب المعاملة أو العقوبة القاسية أو اللاإنسانية أو المهينة، والتمتع بالحق في أعلى مستوى صحي ممكن، كما جاء في المادة 12 من العهد الدولي الخاص بالحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والثقافية، الذي أصبحت مصر دولة طرف فيه منذ عام 1982.
للاطلاع على تقرير هيومن رايتس ووتش الصادر في مارس/آذار 2004 بعنوان "في زمن التعذيب: إهدار العدالة في الحملة المصرية ضد السلوك المثلي"، يُرجى زيارة: http://www.hrw. org/reports/ 2004/egypt0304/ egypt0304arabic. pdf
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